torque box rust?

[BerniniCaCO3]

I was just reading the other night on a crownvic forum about rust in these things called torque boxes.
Well, the night after the other night, I was doing some work under the car and took a look-see.

I found them, and in fact, they are full of cubic inches of blossomed rust, and there are holes in the bottom.
Honestly, most of this car looks quite alright.
It seems water must pool in just the bottom of these torque boxes.
Can I simply weld a new square plate of steel to make a new bottom to the box?
I'm NOT going to be doing a frame-off restoration; this is purely about pragmatic damage control that can be done quickly and easily-- if it maybe even needs to be done at all?

[1990LTD]

Need someone that can actually weld a frame and weld it properly.

[86VickyLX]

Ac evaporator drains on the frame there.

[gadget73]

yeah, driver's side right under the A pillar is a common rot point because of the AC. Have the rust ground out and a plate welded on. No big deal if you catch it before the frame goes away. I'd wager most of the cars on here either have or had a hole there. Believe it or not, mine is one of the few that don't. It had a rot spot on the other side where nothing ever goes bad, but under the AC was fine. Go figure.

[1990LTD]

Mine isn't rotten there, oddly enough. The rear quarters are horrible but the torque box on that side is fine...probably because the AC died and nobody ever recharged it

[johnunit]

Mine has minor rot. And the driver's side is fine.

We should probably have a sticky about this

[BerniniCaCO3]

you mean passenger side, don't you?
And, it's plain old mild steel? So find a plate, cut it up, have a more welding-experienced coworker tack it on? Easy-peasy?

Amazing that no one has figured out good drainage yet.
On volvos, which are all unibodies, there's still a subframe under the engine compartment. The body bolts ALWAYS drop water on you when you unzip them-- I only ever see them at 5 years old at most. I wonder what they'll look like at 15 years of water sitting right there pooled around the body bolts?
And the sunroof drains are forever clogging, and then letting water right into the car.
It becomes all the more tragic when there's no longer just one $200 engine computer like on my old panther, but instead, a dozen $800 computers at risk (OK, not all of them are really in risky spots). The central electronics module is not uncommon to die from water damage, and it will literally disable the vehicle when it does.

[1990LTD]

At least the computer isn't up in the fender!



I think Scott figured out a way to get the AC to drip away from the frame.

[gadget73]

manufacturers do not build cars to last forever. They could, sure, but nobody would pay the money it would cost, and then you wouldn't have reason to get rid of your car every so many years. We're the freaks for driving 20+ year old stuff that we've fixed.

[sly]

fix it and run it! when it falls apart from rust or damage... get another one and do the same.